This news was relayed by Muzzlewatch this morning. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that:
Two Republican congressmen introduced legislation that would deny the Carter Center federal dollars.
U.S. Reps. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) and Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) introduced the Coordinated American Response to Extreme Radicals Act, or CARTER Act, last week in the wake of former President Jimmy Carter’s recent outreach to Hamas.
“America must speak with one voice against our terrorist enemies,” Knollenberg said in a statement. “It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups.”
Only the simple minded, deceived, or dishonest do not know that this line of thinking has its roots in official Israeli hasbara (propaganda) intended to characterize Israel as the victim of terrorism, in spite of its continuing military occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
Hamas, however, is not a terrorist organization. The PLO in its early days was. As Jimmy Carter correctly informed a few nights ago on the Charlie Rose Show, Hamas became a terrorist organization only after it won the Palestinian elections. Furthermore, if you have to label Hamas’ resistance to military occupation terrorism, then you must also see Israel’s military occupation as a terrorist project. Indeed, looking at the death tolls since 2000, depending on the year, the Israelis have killed five to thirteen times more Palestinian civilians including children who count for 20% of those killed, and began those killings first after Ariel Sharon instigated the second Intifada.
The “terrorist” labeling of Palestinians, of course, is merely intended to cover up the ongoing military occupation, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and further killing and maiming of innocent Palestinian civilians and resisters of occupation. Truth is that, according to international law, a military occupied people have the full right to resist that occupation.
The documentary, Peace, Propaganda, & The Promised Land (Part I and Part II) has been telling this story for the past two years (Click to see).
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praised the legislation against Carter. Since ZOA is probably the most leading right wing Zionist or Likudnik (meaning, no state for the Palestinians) organization in the US, only its sympathizers would agree with their praise.
But the most disturbing aspect of this proposed legislation is that it is just a symptom of what is wrong with American foreign policy in the Middle East: it merely follows the dictates of official Israeli government propaganda, which, as stated, is solely intended to justify its continuing military occupation and colonization of the West Bank, to essentially blame the occupation of the Palestinians on the Palestinians themselves. Pretty slick.
But Americans, if not some of their politicians, are slowly waking up. This legislation against one of America’s greatest humanitarians is going nowhere.
methinks those Congress people should turn their attention here. After all, they were given, behind closed doors, a briefing on a matter long debunked months ago by Sy Hersh:
Guardian, UK Are these Syrian nuclear pictures faked?
Credibility! huh?
Unpatriotic to question the Bush administration?
We, suspicious? Ya think?
OMG.
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(Rense) Simple logic and observation will prove considerable image tampering has taken place when taking a closer look at the images of the supposed Syrian reactor site. Let’s look at both of these images using shadow vectors to learn more.
The key here is to examine the shadows in the notated images. Since this appears to be a daylight image, we can assume that the Sun is the only light source. At times other than mid-day when the Sun is directly overhead, objects can only cast ONE shadow since the Sun is the only light source. Shadows must be on the opposite side of any object on the ground. For large holes in the ground, the shadow must be down in the bottom of the hole, on the side nearest the sun. We shall see that the problems with these images is that there are shadows on BOTH sides of structures and objects above the ground.
Jerusalem Post: Alleged Syrian atomic reactor ‘vanishes’
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Knollenberg is going to get voted out of office this year.
He’s an idiot.
As for the rest of this, I’m just so tired of the finger-pointing and fighting about terminology.
Would that be a reference to the “lipstick on a pig” phenomenon so prevalent in this conflict?
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Haifa, Israel – Since it launched 12 years ago, Al Jazeera has been one of the few media outlets to regularly present Israeli representatives to the Arab world, but this rare open line of communication is now closed.
The Qatar-based station’s coverage of Israel’s operations in Gaza during February and March hit a nerve with Israeli officials, leading them to stop sending officials on the air. Al Jazeera’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid Al-Omari, told the Forward “they started boycotting Al Jazeera’s Arabic output without announcing it. This means they refuse to participate or appear on screen.”
Al-Omari said that there is no bias to discuss, adding that Israel is uncomfortable with reportage of a humanitarian crisis that it created. He insisted that “our coverage [in Gaza] was full coverage of what was going on there.” He said that there is no scope for negotiation on his channel’s editorial policy.
Palestinian analysts have been quick to point to a tactical error in the “boycott.” Khader Khader of the independent Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre told the Forward: “Al Jazeera is very important in helping to shape many viewpoints in the Arab world. It can help present the Israeli viewpoint, and this boycott is not helping Israel but actually stopping them from making use of this.”
Al Jazeera: Three Israelis and more than 120 Palestinians were killed, including dozens of civilians.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."As you already know, censorship and propaganda are important aspects of Israel’s colonialism, and silencing of news about the atrocities going on in Gaza and the West Bank is likely important to them.
It just amazes me how easily and without regard for professional ethics the press buckles under to pressure from Israel and its operatives here in America and represents Israel as a victim. Bill Moyers is the biggest surprise, given his background, which is probably why, for me at least, his silence is the loudest.